BBC News - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has accused international troops of being careless with the lives of civilians. "Our innocent people are becoming victims of careless operations," Mr Karzai said at a news conference.

He was speaking after a week in which up to 90 Afghan civilians were killed by Nato and US-led troops.

The south of the country has this year seen the worst violence since the Taleban were ousted from power in 2001 by US-led troops.

There are two international missions in Afghanistan: Isaf, with 37,000 troops from 37 countries including the US. Its aim is to help the Afghan government bring security, development and better governance.

The US-led coalition - under the banner of Operation Enduring Freedom - is a counter-terrorism mission that involves mainly special forces.

Both have recently been involved in heavy clashes with insurgents.

'Cheap' lives?

But Mr Karzai said 90 civilians had been killed by the troops in the past 10 days.

"As you are aware over the past several days, as result of indiscriminate and imprecise operations of Nato and coalition forces, our people suffered casualties."

Looking angry, Mr Karzai accused the troops of not co-operating with the Afghan security forces.

"We want to co-operate with the international community," he said.

"We are thankful for their help to Afghanistan. But that does not mean that Afghan lives have no value.

"Afghan life is not cheap and it should not be treated as such."

On Friday, Nato's secretary general called for an investigation into the latest incident in which 25 civilians were killed in an air strike in the Afghan province of Helmand.

Speaking in Quebec City, Canada, Mr de Hoop Scheffer said no Nato, coalition or Afghan soldier would knowingly take aim at a civilian, and accused the Taleban of using civilians as human shields.

"Each innocent civilian victim is one too many," he said. "Unfortunately it happens."

"It's important to avoid these mistakes because we must keep the support of the large majority of the Afghan population."